Thread: 7 Google AdWords Tips and Tricks

7 Google AdWords Tips and Tricks

1. Turn off Content at first - You'll want to turn off the "content network" option inside your campaign settings when you start. This is something that can often lose a lot of money, with a very small CTR. If you do want to use it, I recommend starting with the search network, learning what your converting keywords/ad groups are, and then starting a separate campaign with only content network ads running. And also consider choosing which sites your ads run on explicitly. This will enable you to check and see just where your ads will show, and if it's a good site to match with your market. As usual, test and track, and keep the ones with the best conversions.
2. Run 2 Ads At A Time - Always, always run two ads at a time. This will make sure you can keep increasing your CTR by checking to see which ad performs better, then making that the control and rewriting the other ad. It's good to get at the very least 30 clicks before deciding on a winner.
3. Set a Daily Budget - A lot of people aren't aware this is an option, and some keywords can cost thousands of dollars within a few hours. Make sure you set a budget you can live with so you don't find yourself spending a huge amount of money before you can make adjustments. This setting is inside the campaign settings.
4. Use Different Match Types - There are 3 match types: Broad, Phrase, and Exact. Knowing how each works is crucial to having a good campaign. If nothing else, know that by just putting words in your ad groups, they default to broad match. Broad match will match all searches with those words in any order, as well as any searches containing words with similar meaning (using latent semantic indexing). This means you may have a lot of searches that your ad shows up for that are not words you chose. And because of this you should...
5. Use Negative Keywords - In your keywords research, if you think of keywords that may cause your ads to show but are not related to your campaign, be sure to put them in as negative keywords. You can do this in each ad group by simply putting a negative sign in front of your keywords (and in front of the first quote in negative keyword phrases), but often it's best to just put it into your campaign negative keywords. You can find where to put negative campaign keywords inside your campaign page, where you'll see "campaign negative keyword(s): Edit".
6. Keep Related Keywords in Separate Ad Groups - This is important for several reasons. If you toss all your keywords into one ad group, there's a likely chance that no ad you can possibly write will entice people typing every one of these keywords. Keep your ad groups separate, so you can write unique ads that match with the keywords in that ad group. This will up your CTR. Also, ideally you should have unique landing pages for each ad group, if there is a page that is best for the keywords in that ad group.
7. Track All Results - Tossing keywords into AdWords, crossing your fingers, and hoping for the best is not a good way to do pay-per-click marketing. Track everything so you can remove badly performing keywords, expand on exceptionally performing keywords, and adjust your ads. If you have a page on your site that anyone visiting would indicate a conversion, use AdWords's conversion code option. This allows you to put code on that page so you can know exactly which keywords brought you conversions through your PPC. If this is possible on your page, do it! Knowing precisely which keywords convert will make your PPC campaign a monster, and jump your ROI through the roof.

I would add one thing to all that (great advice by the way). It is better to start with limited keywords but the most targeted one that will bring people that really want what you offer. Make a list of keywords (google can help you will that) and experiment. With time you will see which keywords are more and which are less effective.

Excellent tips it is very useful for adwords beginners thanks for sharing.

I'd go even further and say create a campaign for each "grouping" of keywords. Start with a very small list of keywords and slowly expand it. Also, each ad grooup should contain all three matches, broad, phrase and exact. This will help you determine which way to go with your expansion of keyword list.

Great info thanks for sharing! Here's additional info regarding google adword..


* Set a weekly budget and stick to it
When you're first starting out this is really important. adwords is addictive, and like anything else addictive, it can quickly get out of hand. A keyword may convert like nobody's business one day and die the next. Make sure you know a keyword is working (more importantly, know why it is working) before you invest more.

* Geotarget

Geotarget your ads to the relevant audience. It can be done when you set up a new campaign and in your campaign settings. If you want to show on .com that's fine, but remember that you can geotarget to individual countries and even cities (you can target regions in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and the Netherlands). The more targeted users feels that your ad is, the more likely they are to click on it.

*[COLOR=#000000][SIZE=2][FONT=verdana] Organise your campaigns into adgroupsThis will make it easier for you to know what is doing well and what isn't

I have payed my first 20$ for AdWords campaign. But I do not see any "Week budget" in settings, only monthly? Maybe because I am on the starter edition, should I turn on standard edition? Is there any major difference?

Thanks.

Turn off content also probably the most important advice I would give. It's a waste of money.
Also, NEVER use broad match. Unless you're happy throwing money away. Always go for [exact], or, at a push, "phrase"

Thanks for the tips.

Thanks for the tips. I will studyy them.
I started to look at adwords recently for one of my sites because I have some money to spend and want to try out adwords to build some experience.

I have been dealing with Adwords for 3 years and I have to say these are all great tips for starters. Tip #7 being the most important, conversion tracking. Knowing which keywords convert is the most important data an Adwords advertiser can have. Good list.

~Macheath